Silver
by The Antisocial Bookworm
Summary: What Qrow does during the Battle of Beacon.
1. Falling

Where _**is** that girl? _ Panic spread through the man like wildfire. She was the only one still missing, Yang was fine (well as fine as someone who lost an arm can be...), so was the mini-ice-queen-look-alike and the emo-cat-girl. Where was his Red-clad niece? It felt like he'd searched the entire school, or ruins of the school, Qrow thought bitterly.

Running past a few Griffins, not even sparing them a glance when they growled and hissed at him as he passed. _Gotta find Ruby, gotta find Ruby, gotta find Ruby, gotta find- oh no..._

The top of the tower, in a way, exploded, _oh no oh no oh no! She can't be up there, can she?_ the dragon was up there, Ozpin wasn't, that woman was up there, so was a flash of red, _damnit, damnit, damnit!_ He was so far away, too far really, he always forgot how big Beacon really was. _Emphasis on was._

For a moment he stopped running. White gliffs lined themselves up on the remnants of the tower, and a moment later, a more familiar blast of red shot up the tower, leaving behind a tell-tale trail of floating rose petals. If she wasn't up there before, she was now.

 _Well, I found her..._ Qrow thought with bitter sarcasm as he took off running again. He made it to the tower just as the gliffs diseapeared. Mini-ice-queen stood panting, leaning heavily on her rapier. Grimm were surrounding the girl, Grimm, the drunkard easily dispatched in seconds, "get out of here!" He yelled at the Snow-girl, Weiss, her name was.

The girl gave him a funny look, but obliged, and took off in the direction of the airship docks. But not before she yelled, "Pyrrah's up there too!"

Sighing he looked up at the top of the tower, only seconds had passed but he was just in time to see an explosion of white light, _shit._

Not even caring about the disadvantages of being a defenseless crow during a battle anymore, Qrow took off up the side of the tower. He made it just in time to see Ruby, his beloved niece, fall from the air, silver whisps disappearing from around her eyes. The dragon, the dragon was frozen, petrified, separated from time itself.

 _Oz wasn't kidding..._

"It's okay, I've got you." He stated as he gathered the fifteen year old into his arms, he'd have to take the long way down the tower, but it was worth it. The baby of the family, the silver eyed little angel, she looked just like her mother.

 _Summer..._

Her power though, greatly outweighed that of her mother, and quite possibly dwarfed it. The only problem was that she didn't know about it. Ozpin planned on telling her after she finished a year or two of training at Beacon,

 _...Summer's Rose's daughter, the simple soul. The most powerful soul I've ever seen..._

And that was saying something, Ozpin'd seen, and conversed with

her...

but did it matter? Ruby Rose, the baby of the family, Taiyang still sugar coated 'everything' for her.

 _And I mean **everything** ,_

Would his little Ruby even be able to handle the weight of that responsibility? Did it matter if she could? He came back to the docks just as the last evacuation airship began loading. Yang was hopefully already at a hospital,

 _How'll she cope with a loss like that?_

Taiyang stood at the docks near the airship, looking around worriedly until he saw Qrow and his red/black burden. "I tried calling you, everything, it's all dark."

"it won't work, turn it off."

"Why not?"

"The tower fell" he turned to his old friend with a serious expression, shuffling Ruby's dead weight in his arms in the process. Taiyang simply stared at Qrow, "what?"

"Pyrrhaa Nikos is probably dead, Ozpin is missing, the top of the tower exploded, and Ruby went Silver-eyes on the Dragon."

Qrow mentally listed things out in his mind as he said them. It was a lot to take inTaiyang just stared at him for a moment, then two.

 _Wait for it..._

"WHAT!?"

Qrow didn't need to be sober to know what the man needed to have repeated, "your fifteen year old daughter, Ruby Rose, went Silver-eyes, on the Grimm Dragon."

"What, why, how!?"

Qrow shrugged, "my best guess? She probably saw that Cinder chick kill Pyrrah Nickos, then she went over the edge."

"Ruby, Ruby woke up her power? It's too soon! I can't tell her yet!"

Qrow sighed, _Honestly..._

"Fine, I will. She has to know Tai."

 _I just wish it wasn't so soon._


	2. Flying

He knew why he did it, Taiyang might not understand just yet, but he would. Qrow knew it was stupid, but not telling her would be ludicrous at this point. And Qrow would take stupid over ludicrous any day.

He didn't regret telling the girl about her power, that was something he should have done from day one, or even back when Summer died, oh so long ago.

 _Summer_...

But what the old reaper regretted more then ever, was telling his little niece where to find the power hungry woman who's brought down the colossal school that was Beacon. He should've known that the kid would run off to be a hero, and maybe he did.

Maybe that was why he told her in the first place, after all, if Oz was right, she might just be the only thing that could save the world. But that didn't change the fact that he never expected her to leave without her sister.

Maybe she realized Yang needed to work things out on her own for a while, either way, within few months, his little, red, scythe wielder of a niece was running off to save the world with the remainder of the Nikos girl's team.

He couldn't let them go alone. Oz had told him about how the leader of team JNPR had forged his documents, his idea was that if the kid could make it through initiation, he would be fine. And he was, but Qrow didn't trust him to keep his little niece safe. Not by a long shot.

So there he stood on the cliff, cold winter air piercing his skin. Not that he cared. The trees were barren of any leaves, and the ground was covered in snow. He watched the kids walk along the path Ruby had grown up traveling, watching them leave her quaint little home behind, watching them head for the port in town that would take them away from the island of Patch.

He couldn't just watch.

So standing on his lonely, snow covered cliff, He looked down at Ozpin's cane, an important object, more so then he probably knew. He would make sure his simple little soul would make it. Even if he had to get her there herself.

He would help his little girl be the hero she dreamed about.

He just hoped he could watch her do it.

He looked up from the cane, to the four children walking off to fight a war bigger then they could every imagine. A war that encompassed centuries, one that had been around so long people had forgotten it had ever existed at all.

He took one look at them, and jumped. His semblance kicked in writhing seconds, and soon he was soaring above the trees. Watching, following, and guarding.

Ozpin had been right, guardians choose themselves, although, the man propably hadn't meant it in this wide of a prospect.

Ruby had chosen her path, and Qrow followed. Choosing to guard. Guarding the guardian who chose herself. It was Poetic really. In more ways then one. A lonely crow, following the world's last hope. Following, and hoping, that his children could in fact, win a war.


End file.
